Rory McIlroy said he wasn’t going to lie. Jon Rahm had his answer as soon as the question was asked.
The biggest reason for the PGA Tour’s changes?
LIV Golf, they said.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie; I think the emergence of LIV or the emergence of a competitor to the PGA Tour has benefited everyone that plays elite professional golf,” McIlroy said Tuesday during his press conference ahead of this week’s Players Championship.
“I think when you’ve been the biggest golf league in the biggest market in the world for the last 60 years, there’s not a lot of incentive to innovate. This has caused a ton of innovation at the PGA Tour, and what was quite, I would say, an antiquated system is being revamped to try to mirror where we’re at in the world in the 21st century with the media landscape and just every — you know, the PGA Tour isn’t just competing with LIV Golf or other sports. It’s competing with Instagram and TikTok and everything else that’s trying to take eyeballs away from the PGA Tour as a product.
“So, yeah, you know, LIV coming along, it’s definitely had a massive impact on the game, but I think everyone who’s a professional golfer is going to benefit from it going forward.”
McIlroy’s and Rahm’s comments come after a series of changes the Tour has made over the past year as part of its fight with LIV, the Saudi-backed series that has attracted several pros and is now in its second season. Among the more recent changes, announced just last week, the Tour will play eight designated events next year without a cut, and only 50 players — the top 50 from the prior year’s year-long standings — will be guaranteed spots in those events.
Echoing McIlroy, Rahm said he knew the impetus.
“Oh, it’s LIV Golf,” said Rahm, who followed McIlroy on Tuesday in pre-Players press conferences.
“I mean, without a doubt. Without LIV Golf, this wouldn’t have happened. So to an extent, like I’ve said before, we should be thankful this threat has made the PGA Tour want to change things. I think I said it last week, as well; I wish it didn’t come to the PGA Tour being, you know, under fire from somebody else to make those changes and make things better for the players, but I guess it is what we needed. So, yeah, it is because of LIV Golf. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have seen any of this.”
The answers were sincere. But were the comments surprising? Perhaps. The nod to a competitor as the reason for change is at least somewhat unexpected; you don’t see McDonald’s and Burger King tossing bouquets to each other.
